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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29344572">This Love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MxMearcstapa/pseuds/MxMearcstapa'>MxMearcstapa</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dimileth Hot Flash (Fire Emblem), F/M, Flash Fic, Immortality, Pain, Post-Canon, Vivid descriptions of pain, Whump, blood transfusion, but their love is so strong, dimileth, hurt with only a tiny bit of comfort, under 1k</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:07:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>904</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29344572</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MxMearcstapa/pseuds/MxMearcstapa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“You cannot keep this up forever,” he murmured, searching her. His single blue eye blazed. “I won’t allow it. Not when it taxes you so.”<br/>“I can, and I will,” she returned with conviction, as though she had not just been racked with pain so severe that it left an ache in her bones. “The goddess gave me this power, and I will use it. I will do whatever it takes to keep you with me.”</p>
<p>What if Byleth could extend Dimitri's life by sharing her blood?<br/>...what if doing so hurt a lot?<br/>For the Dimileth Spring Fever Hot Flash prompts, blood and mortality/immortality</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>91</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Dimileth Hot Flash, Mearcstapa Whumps</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>This Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Inspired by a friend who said "haha what if Byleth made Dimitri immortal?"<br/>To which I said, "haha omg and what if it was incredibly painful to maintain his immortality?"</p>
<p>I'm sorry :D</p>
<p>For the Dimileth Spring Fever Hot Flash prompts, blood and mortality/immortality</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The pain was unbearable.</p>
<p>Every breath was a labor, the air cold and sharp as shards of steel. Sweat beaded on her forehead and dripped down her skin in thin rivulets. Her muscles burned as she strained, her unyielding will clashing against a sensation so rending it made her lose her name. She would not give in. She would not let go. Not now, and not ever. Not when struggling through this meant keeping <em> him</em>. A scream tore out of her, the sound distant in her ears.</p>
<p>“Beloved,” gasped a voice as clear as day.</p>
<p>The pain ebbed in increments, and Byleth opened her eyes.</p>
<p>Dimitri touched his forehead to hers and held her face in his hands. She had been burning, scorching with fever, but when the feeling left, she was cold. She was often cold, of late. But Dimitri’s hands were warm, no matter how many years had passed. Byleth brought her own shaking hands up to his and squeezed.</p>
<p>“You cannot keep this up forever,” he murmured, searching her. His single blue eye blazed. “I won’t allow it. Not when it taxes you so.”</p>
<p>“I can, and I will,” she returned with conviction, as though she had not just been racked with pain so severe that it left an ache in her bones. “The goddess gave me this power, and I will use it. I will do whatever it takes to keep you with me.”</p>
<p>Dimitri smiled, but his melancholy was evident. Tenderly, he placed a kiss on Byleth’s brow and pulled her close. It was hardly the first time he had disagreed with her on this, and it would hardly be the last. Byleth hated to trouble him, but there was no alternative: either he worried, or he would not be there to worry at all.</p>
<p>The memory was old, but the fear of his loss was still as fresh in her heart as the first time she felt it. They had been newly wed, a king and an archbishop then, and while handling a rebellion in what had been Adrestian territory, Dimitri had been gravely injured. To save him, Byleth did the only thing she could think of—like Rhea had done for her father all those years ago, she gave Dimitri her blood.</p>
<p>Byleth had not known what to expect, not truly. While she waited for him to recover, she considered what implications the process might have had: she expected that Dimitri might slow in aging, as her father was alleged to have. She had expected he might grow somehow, miraculously, stronger. She had expected, perhaps, a new and unbreakable bond to bloom between them. On those accounts, her predictions were correct.</p>
<p>What Byleth had not expected was the pain. At first, it was a periodic sensation—small, tingling, like an itch. Over the years, it worsened, growing into a constant burn, crackling like fire in her marrow, dragging down her spine, clouding her vision. She shouldered it all without a word of complaint, despite Dimitri’s concern, despite Seteth’s protestations, despite Rhea’s beseeching.</p>
<p>“Let go of him, dear child,” Rhea had told her more times than she could count, her cold fingers tightening around Byleth’s own. “Let go of him, or it will desolate you both.”</p>
<p>Each and every time, Byleth shook her head, the caress of the ache in her limbs now like a lover. “I am desolate without him. Compared to the thought of parting with him, this pain is nothing.”</p>
<p>And so the decades skimmed past them. Their children, their children’s children, and beyond grew and faded like a garden of flowers. The world changed shape, leaving little of the time they had fallen in love but for myths and legends. Together, they watched it, hands clasped as tightly as the first night they had reached for each other in the rain.</p>
<p>And still the pain worsened.</p>
<p>There were days Byleth shook so violently, her vision hazy with darkness, that she could do nothing but lie down and breathe, her fingers curled around Dimitri’s. He crawled into bed next to her, his body warm against hers, and shook himself. In her moments of clarity, Byleth wiped away his tears and kissed his brow.</p>
<p>The pain reached a new apex. Every brush against her skin needled, every breath like swallowing sludge. Her body raged with fever, and for the first time in her memory, Byleth felt herself warmer than Dimitri. Despite it all, she clutched his hand.</p>
<p>“Beloved,” Dimitri pleaded. “Byleth, <em> please</em>, I would not see you pained so.”</p>
<p>“Dimitri,” she whispered. Nothing else seemed as important as his name. Nothing else could claw its way past her lips. Over the ringing in her ears, she heard Dimitri call for her. He sounded alarmed, though Byleth could not parse the reason.</p>
<p>Quietly, without ceremony, she slipped into the cold dark.</p>
<p>The pain had ceased, not even a ghost of it remaining in her limbs. Byleth turned.</p>
<p>She was alone.</p>
<p>A weight greater than any burden she had ever carried stole her breath and pulled her down. On her knees, she cradled her head in her hands and wept.</p>
<p>A warm hand touched the top of her head.</p>
<p>Startled, Byleth looked up.</p>
<p>Against the darkness, Dimitri smiled like starlight, soft and bright. He pulled her to her feet and held her close, his voice a song in her ear.</p>
<p>“As though I would let you go alone.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>

<p></p><div>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Why did I write this?? Why did you read it? Thanks for doing so anyway. If you enjoyed(?) this piece, please leave a comment. Thank you again, and I'm sorry :D</p></blockquote></div></div>
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